Cayman Brac to get more water

Cayman Brac’s desalination plant could produce an extra 60,000 gallons of water per day by October in an effort to meet peak daily demand.

According to the Water Authority–Cayman, the addition of a refrigerated container at its West End works will enhance the site’s overall daily production capacity to 200,000 gallons.

Water Authority-Cayman deputy director Tom van Zanten said the decision had been made to increase capacity after daily usage came close to the plant’s current production capacity of 140,000 gallons per day.

Consolidated Water has been contracted to construct the extension and maintain the plant until October this year.

Mr. van Zanten said with dry season demand close to 105,000 gallons on a day-to-day basis, the peak demand could sometimes reach more than 150,000 gallons, exceeding production capacity.

“We have days in the month where the demand on a daily basis exceeds that [average]. We are getting to what we can produce so we want to have the extra capacity,” he said.

“The decision was made to increase the water production capacity by purchasing and installing a containerised Sea Water Reverse Osmosis Plant. Besides ensuring the ability to meet demand, an additional benefit is that this plant will increase the operational flexibility and reliability as the total water production capacity will now be provided by two independent plants.”

The Water Authority has operated a limited piped water supply system on Cayman Brac since 1991.